Goodbye Byron
by CrazyHayniac
Summary: After the Brian Squad competition, Byron finds out some depressing news that results in him no longer being able to attend Sepulveda high. My take on why Byron isn't in season 2.


After hanging out with the other members of the Brain Squad for a little while following the win, Byron went to find his parents and little sister. "There you are," his mom, Elaine, spoke when she spotted him. "We're heading out to dinner to celebrate the win."

"Awesome," Byron glanced around. "I just wish I knew where Cole, Dayton, and Frankie went. I wanted to say goodbye to them. Guess I'll just have to text them and see them later," he sighed when he didn't see them in the hotel lobby.

As Byron pulled his phone from his pocket, his mom glanced over to his dad, Oscar, and frowned. They hated what they were going to have to tell their children when they got home from dinner. Sadly, they knew that life worked that way sometimes.

"All right. I'm all set to go," Byron said. "Hey Kyla, do you want to hold my hand while we walk through the parking lot?" Byron asked, turning to his little sister.

"Yeah," the nine year old replied. Given that Byron was six years older than she was, she always looked up to him in more than one way. Byron had also always looked out for Kyla and he always would look out for her.

CHCHCH

A little while later, the family had pulled up to one of their favorite places to go out to eat at. Once inside, they were quickly seated at a booth, and were soon able to order their food.

"What made you decide to go out for dinner?" Byron asked. "You never said anything about it before," he continued while they waited for their food and Kyla colored her coloring page.

"We decided we wanted to celebrate your win," Oscar replied.

"You said there was something else," Kyla spoke without looking up from her coloring page.

"There's something else?" Byron questioned.

"Well, we were going to come if you lost too. As more of a consolation dinner," Elaine admitted.

"Something else," Kyla pressed in a sing-song voice.

"Mom, Dad, what is it?"

His dad sighed. "We were hoping to wait until we got home to tell you kids this," he paused to take a deep breath and his expression turned grave, "but we have to move. And we have to move this weekend. I suddenly got a transfer at work. They have a house ready for us about two hours away."

"What? I don't get to say a real goodbye to my friends?"

"But—" Kyla said, her crayon falling from her hand. "I don't want to move," she cried as tears began to fill her eyes.

Byron looked beside him to his little sister. He realized that no matter how upset he was, he first needed to comfort her. He wrapped his arm around Kyla and brought her head against his chest. "It's going to be okay, Kyla. You'll still have me. And we'll only be a couple hours away. Maybe Mom and Dad can still take us to visit our friends on the weekends."

"Of course," Elaine confirmed. "We would never ask you to completely cut ties with your friends here."

Kyla was silent for a couple minutes as she thought over what her mom had said. When she had calmed down, she ran her hands under her eyes to wipe away the last of her tears. "Okay," she agreed.

Byron decided to put his concerns about the move aside until later. Kyla went to bed before he did, so he would talk to his parents more then. And from the sounds of it, they would have to begin packing that night. "Are we going to be able to pack everything before we move?"

"We might just be getting everything we need first," Elaine answered. "We will have to come back for a couple weekends to make sure we get everything."

"And we can see out friends then too," Byron assumed.

"Of course," Oscar confirmed.

"I'd like that," Kyla said, offering her family a smile.

"We would love for you to still be able to see your friends despite the move," Elaine confirmed.

"I can live with that. I just haven't heard back from anyone yet, so that's weird," Byron said as he checked his phone.

"They're probably busy with their families as well. Frankie did have the answer that won the competition," Elaine reasoned.

Byron nodded knowing that it would be best not to let his parents know that he and Cole had helped Frankie sneak out. "I guess I'll probably hear back from them later." Byron returned his phone to his pocket and continued to talk with his family while they waited for their food.

CHCHCH

About an hour and a half later, the family made it home having stopped to get ice cream for dessert on the way home.

"I'm going to go to my room," Kyla said.

"How about I help you find some clothes to wear for the next couple days. Then we can get some of your other clothes packed in a suitcase. All right?"

"Okay," Kyla agreed. She and their mom headed upstairs to her bedroom while Byron and their dad stayed downstairs.

"Why did you get the transfer? Why can't we stay here?" Byron questioned.

"I guess there was some sort of problem and things have not been going well with new people and they need people with more experience and leadership skills to help things get settled there. They need this done as soon as possible and they chose me."

Byron paused in thought. "Does that mean we can come home once things are more settled?"

"I hope so."

"And what about our house? Are we going to rent it out?"

"I think it will just sit here—hopefully just for a couple months. And since things are in flux, I'm not sure about renting it. Plus, work is covering the cost of the house we'll be staying in."

"Meaning we won't have to pay rent on it," Byron concluded.

"Correct."

"Okay. I better start packing some of my things like Mom and Kyla are." Byron turned to go to his room. Once he was there, he first went to sit down on his bed and sent a text to his friends. He wanted to make sure he let them know he had to move and probably wouldn't be able to see them before the weekend was over as they had to move that weekend.

As his mom had suggested for Kyla to do, Byron picked a couple outfits to wear for the weekend and began packing other things. He made sure to pack his favorite shirts, sweatshirts, and pants, plus some others for the following week into a suitcase. He also made sure he got all his dirty clothes together so they could be washed.

Since he didn't have boxes to put his things in and didn't want to bother his parents about them, Byron began putting other things he wanted to take with him together on one side of his room. Some of his other things like his laptop, he put into his backpack.

After a couple hours of packing and finding the things he would need, Byron headed back downstairs to say goodnight to his parents. "Hey, Mom, Dad," Byron said when he found them talking in the living room.

"Hey."

"Why aren't you packing?"

"We already started with some of our things," his dad replied.

"Okay. I was wondering if there were any boxes for packing somewhere?" he decided to ask.

"Not yet. I'm picking up a moving truck and boxes tomorrow morning."

"Okay. I also came down to say goodnight before I went to bed." Byron and his parents said their goodnights before he again returned to his room.

It had been more than an hour since Byron had last checked his phone. When he checked it before going to sleep, he found that he had a text from Cole. In the text Cole said he was sorry to hear that Byron had to move and that he had shared the news with Frankie—who didn't have her phone—but that he wasn't able to tell Dayton and she didn't know because of her phone being broken. He had also mentioned how he hoped to see Byron the following weekend.

"I hope everything's okay if Cole and Dayton aren't together right now," Byron spoke to himself as he turned his light off.

CHCHCH

The following morning, Byron woke wishing he would have the chance to say goodbye to his friends in person. It had sounded like Cole and Frankie would be busy. Did it have something to do with why they snuck Frankie out yesterday? He wished he had time to think about it and figure it out, but he needed to get ready for the move.

Still, there was a part of him that wanted to sneak out, go to the Reyes household, and hopefully say goodbye to at least one of his friends quickly. He wasn't normally the kind of person who would sneak out, but he wasn't normally the kind of person who helped other people sneak out either. He decided that saying goodbye to Cole and or Dayton was worth the risk of getting in trouble.

Byron got dressed silently to make sure his parents wouldn't find out what he was doing.

He peeked out to the hall and saw that all the lights were still off. It made sense since Byron had managed to wake up before 7. When he grabbed his keys from his desk, Byron was thankful he kept them in his room. As he was about to leave, he decided to put some pillows and clothes on his bed to make it look like he was still asleep in case his parents decided to look into his room before he got back.

While he walked the few blocks to Cole and Dayton's house, Byron realized again how unlike him his current actions were. Sneaking out? He was a rule follower, not a rule breaker. Most kids who were at the top of their class didn't try sneaking out of the house. Byron realized he didn't care anymore because at that moment, the thing he cared about most was seeing his friends.

The lights were off at Cole and Dayton's house when Byron got there—he had expected that the lights would still be off. Having been over to their house countless times since the he first met them when they were in kindergarten, Byron knew where Cole's room was. He picked up a few small pebbles and tossed them at the window, not wanting to wake their mom up if he knocked.

After a couple minutes, Byron recalled how deep of a sleeper Cole could be. Dayton was a much lighter sleeper—something Byron knew because he and Cole had never been able to pull any pranks on her because she always woke up.

Next, Byron made his way to Dayton's window which looked out to the backyard. He repeated the same thing he had done before and began tossing small pebbled at Dayton's window.

CHCHCH

When she heard a random *tap* against her window every couple seconds, Dayton first thought it was part of her dream. As her brain started to wake up and began working, she realized it was something hitting her window. She sat up and opened her blinds. "Byron?"

"Dayton!" Byron exclaimed, though he still kept his voice at a whisper.

Dayton moved the blinds out of the way more so she could open her window while brushing her hair out of her face. "Byron, what are you doing here? It's—" she turned to glance at the clock. "—just after 7."

"I know. I—I, um, found out that I have to move last night after the Brain Squad competition."

"What? No. When?"

"Right now. But I wanted to be able to say bye to at least one of my friends in person. I guess Cole didn't have the chance to tell you about the move."

"No, he didn't," Dayton said, deciding not to tell Byron about anything else; she was sure he already had enough on his mind.

"Ah. Well, I'm sorry you have to find out this way," Byron said, looking down.

"Hey, it's not your fault. I'm sorry you have to move so suddenly. What's the Brain Squad going to do without you?" Dayton joked, earning a smile from Byron.

"I guess they'll need a replacement. But hopefully we'll be able to move back. Dad just got a job transfer about two hours away because they need someone with more experience to help things get settled. I guess it came up suddenly."

"That stinks." Dayton paused, "I'm not going to wake Cole up—it'd be almost impossible this early on a weekend—but I'm going to come down a minute."

Byron nodded and Dayton closed her window and the blinds. Her mom was likely still asleep, and Dayton made it easily out to the back door to meet Byron.

"So you have to move this weekend?" Dayton frowned.

"Yeah. We'll probably be back next weekend and maybe a couple weekends after that yet to get everything from the house. We're only getting the things we need right now."

Dayton shook her head. "I wish we had known about this sooner so we could do something about it. But I guess at least you won't be several states away. You can still come to visit or we could go visit."

"Yeah, I guess that is a plus. I'll remind Kyla about it. She was pretty bummed about the move."

"I can only imagine. I hope the adjustment goes well, but I better let you go."

"I probably should get home," Byron confirmed. "I actually snuck out and don't know when Dad was going to get the moving truck."

"I'll be sure to let Cole and Frankie know what's going and, and let Cole know you stopped by. I guess I'll see you." Dayton put her arms around Byron's waist in a hug and Byron returned it by wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

"See you later, Dayton," Byron spoke as their hug ended a minute later. He made his way back out of their yard as Dayton headed inside. He sighed in relief when he got home and found that his parents weren't awake yet when he got home.

Instead of going back to sleep, Byron continued making sure he had everything he would need. He was in the kitchen getting breakfast when his dad came downstairs. Byron was still disappointed to have to move, but he felt better after having the chance to say bye to Dayton in person.

A/N: First, I want to give a bit more of an explanation about this. I found out through the cast that Armani (who plays Byron) wasn't called back for the second season. I decided that I wanted to write something to explain why Byron would be absent from the season, and this was the result.

Judging by the different clothes everyone was wearing during 'I am . . . Eliza' I assume that it takes place the Saturday after the competition. Several other things that imply this to me are how Will and Sigourney were supposed to return home around 6 the evening of the competition and there's a lot of daylight throughout the episode. Another thing that implies it to me is that if you pause when Cole is getting the texts from Dayton, they say 1:38pm when the competition was after school. Because of that, I think this still fits with canon even though I actually wrote it before 'I am . . . Eliza' aired.

In case anyone was wondering, I ship Dayton and Byron and have decided that their ship name will be Brayton; I will be posting one-shots about Byron and Dayton's relationship in the future whether it's canon or not.

Anyway, I really hope everyone enjoyed this, and I'd love to know what you thought or how you think I can improve through constructive criticism as simply saying you dislike it doesn't help anything get better. Thanks for reading,

-CrazyHayniac


End file.
